Toronto Ontario Temple
It’s 5:35 AM and I’m about to board a WestJet flight from Halifax to Toronto. After getting a free bus ride to the airport last night, I slept a few hours in the airport and I’m now ready to head to Toronto! God bless the wonderful bus driver who felt sorry for this American who only had American cash on him! She gave me a free bus ride +2 free transfers, which saved me about a $50 Uber ride!
I slept on a wooden bench overnight, waiting for security to open up around 3 AM. At 4 AM I went through and at 6 AM we took off for Toronto. Two hours and 15 minutes later, we landed in Toronto in a slight snowstorm!
I GPSd the directions to the temple and found out the bus system stops right in front of the temple! So I hopped on and explained to the driver I hadn’t converted any American cash to Canadian dollars so he gave me a free pass and just let me go. Yea!
The 505 bus literally stops right in front of the temple. It’s the best public transit access temple I’ve ever been to!
I was about an hour and a half early for my temple session, so I went next-door to the stake center where a solitary pick up truck was parked in front of the doors. That’s where I met my new friend Ander!
Ander is the facilities manager for a four stake area here in Toronto. He’s been doing it for about 20 years. He told me his family’s immigration story from Guatemala, and some of the oppression that they faced. His father was determined to give his wife and younger kids a better life, and that decision took them from Guatemala, on a 14 hour bus ride through Mexico to the border, then to Miami, then to Newfoundland, and finally to Toronto. It makes me appreciate my simple life of being raised in Orem!
A painting inside the temple office showed Brigham Young talking with Wilford Woodruff in the St. George Temple. I thought Wilford Woodruff may have been John Taylor, and that started my recollections of my great-great grandfather Joseph Horne, who was a close friend of John Taylor, and they all lived in Toronto! When Joseph visited Toronto, Joseph Horne hitched up his horses to his wagon, and drove the prophet around to visit the people. Joseph Horne’s wife, Mary Isabella, was quite petite, and the prophet once said to Joseph Horne, “If my wife was as small as that I think I just put her in my shirt pocket and take her around with me everywhere I went!“
Of course, a trip to Toronto would be incomplete without showing some Canadian geese on the temple grounds! 🙏 I also got Elder Ibanez’s father’s name, address, and phone number, and sent him a text message reaching out to say hi while I was here. It looks like I just won’t have enough time to see him before my 5 o’clock flight to Winnipeg, but at least I tried!
What a joy to visit a town that my ancestors lived in and to talk for about half an hour with my new friend Ander, whose knowledge of Guatemala may be helpful to me in an upcoming Guatemala trip by the way! What a joy to serve in the Toronto Ontario Temple, to see the people who were there, and to feel the Lord’s love for His children.
After the session I went right back out front of the temple, hopped on the bus going the other way, came right back to the airport, and I’m now just waiting for my next flight to depart.
What a blast!! 🙏